(looking for screenshots and visual stuff? scroll down to “features,” and also check out the videos about L4)
Today Logos Bible Software has rolled out Logos 4. Through an unexpected bit of providence I ended up beta testing this software for the last couple of months. I’ve spent my last six years as a pastor using my paper books, Bibleworks, and an occasional dabble in Logos 3. No longer.
Logos 4 isn’t an upgrade to Logos 3 – it has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. It was a gutsy move for the company to undergo a project this ambitious, but those of us who love Bible study will benefit from a product that will be able to keep up with the changes in the digital world (for example, see the new iphone app that syncs with your L4 library). It’s worth reading the Logos blog post today for more on the decision to completely rebuild the program.
Through the beta testing process I’ve been able to observe first-hand the company’s dedication to the product, to their customers, and ultimately to the Word and the God of the Word. They subjected L4 to a team of beta testers who criticized, complained, suggested, scowled, cheered, groaned – something like 14,000 posts in the private beta forum over 2 months. And the Logos team listened to all of it, graciously interacted with us, and worked like crazy to keep improving the product. How many companies will do that?
L4 isn’t perfect, but from what I’ve seen through the beta process, I think we can be certain that Logos won’t just put a product on the market and then let users deal with it, warts and all. They are going to continue to push and improve and rethink and rebuild in any way they can to improve the product. They really do listen in the forums.
Pricing
Logos has never been cheap, and obviously there are some free software programs and websites that can do some of the basics. But I think it’s helpful to keep things in perspective.
First, the typical American vacation costs $200-350 a day – $1,600 for an average vacation. And we fuss about paying for software to study the Bible?
Second, look carefully at the contents. For example, with the introductory special Logos Scholars’ Silver costs about $750 right now (don’t trust the price on the website – call customer service). It includes 37 volumes of the very helpful New American Commentary series. In print you’d pay about $22 per volume (=$814). You can get the electronic set for about $485. But the set – and 650 other books – is included in Scholars’ Silver.
By the way, the standard Scholar’s Library is a great deal right now at $472.46. It combines many of the best parts of Bible Study Library and Original Languages Library into one.
And just in case you just received your inheritance, see this.
Features
I’ve created a few pages to illustrate some of my favorite L4 features. Most of these aren’t powertools for scholars, but the kind of stuff that the average Bible student can profit from. Keep in mind that different packages have different resources, so what you see in my screenshots might differ from what you would see in L4 on your computer. Clicking on the screenshots should bring up the larger image if needed. Check out:
Problems
I have Bibleworks 6, and I love the quickness with which I can perform basic study tasks. There are still a couple of things that are easier in the Bibleworks interface than in L4. I’ll put it this way: in my sermon preparation, L4 is better for 9 out of every 10 study tasks, and I switch to Bibleworks for 1/10.
The L4 homepage is innovative. Whether it’s good or not, I’m not certain. It’s designed to be kind of like a website that you browse each morning, to see if anything interesting catches your eye. Some people love it. When I first saw it I called it “horrific.” I’m over that now, but I still prefer to avoid it.
The L4 interface is very powerful and visual, and it tries to do a lot of things at once. Sometimes it tries to do too many things at once, and you have to wait for it to catch up with you.
The basic search tool is not especially helpful, especially when searching for topics or keywords (for example, “centurion”). You get a bazillion returns (depending on the size of your library) from many types of resources, and it’s just overwhelming. You really have to learn about library organization (making collections, prioritizing resources, etc.) before searching becomes helpful. Thankfully, library organization is both powerful and fairly simple.
Conclusion
This is a tremendous Bible study tool from a great company. I’ve been using it in my sermon prep for several weeks, and I love it. If you can, get it. More later.
For some other reviews that highlight some things I missed, see Seek the Holy, Bible Software Review, Go Share Your Faith, Ricoblog, Kevin Purcell, Dan Phillips, and More Than Cake.
